These two identical fifth-deck homers by the Rays in Toronto have to be seen to be believed
The 2019 season marks the 30th anniversary of the Blue Jays' first year in their iconic Skydome, now known as Rogers Centre. Throughout its history, only a select group of 16 players had ever reached the distant lands of the fifth deck with a tape-measure homer.
It takes real pop to reach those heights -- think
and Jose Canseco.
The exact number of blasts to reach the fifth deck is 20, so roughly one every season and a half at the Rogers Centre. It's a pretty rare occurrence.
That makes what the Rays did on Friday night against
It wasn't even a strike and Meadows demolished it! Now that's a monster shot.
The Rays took a 2-0 lead and Meadows found himself in the prestigious club of fifth-deck sluggers. The away dugout was abuzz with the excitement of Meadows' homer. What could possibly beat that?
How about Brandon Lowe doing the exact same thing just a few batters later?
In just one inning, the "Fifth-Deck Club" gained two new members, thanks to a pair of moonshots to almost the exact same location down the right-field line. Look at where they both hit!
Both Meadows and Lowe's homers were estimated at 436 feet. How is that possible?
It's ridiculous enough, but here's the craziest part. Only three of the 20 fifth-deck homers had been hit to right field. Rogers Centre went from seeing three in 30 years to two in one inning.
Now that's just silly.
Andrew Mearns is a writer for Cut4 whose baseball obsession was born from the shattered dreams of Mike Mussina's perfect game attempt in 2001. He has a startling memory of World Series highlights that barely functions as a party trick.
